Mason Matthew is here!

Mason was due on 02/07 which came and went. Grandma Cheryl had planned on a visit from the 12th-15th to spend time with the new baby. She was quite disappointed to arrive Friday night and still no baby. Sunday morning I woke up feeling crampy. We went to IHOP for breakfast with Courtney and the cramping continued. After breakfast we had Grandma take Lucas to the Train Park while Andy and I watched our labor movie, The Hangover. I had envisioned us snuggling and watching a movie and having a quick pain free labor in the birth tub with an easy delivery. The actual story went a bit differently.

After the movie I decided I needed to relax as much as possible so went to the bedroom and turned the lights off and put on my Rainbow Relaxation Hypnosis CD. It was on repeat and I ended up staying in bed all day listening to the CD until our midwife arrived at after 10pm that night. Andy made me a sandwich (PB&J) for lunch which I threw up so decided to give up on eating again. I was able to sleep between all of the contractions which was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I was able to rest all day and conserve energy and a curse because the time flew between each contraction and it seemed like they were never ending. For a while I’d get one that started really light and then built up and hit three peaks before spreading to my back and then fading. I actually began looking forward to the painful back contraction because I knew it meant it would be gone soon. I tried counting to 10 about 4-5 times knowing that the contraction should be over by the time I was done counting. This helped me keep my mind off of it.

Around 10 I had Andy call and ask Mary if I could labor in the tub and that’s when she decided to head over. I never had a real “transition” period so that was different. She got here about 10:30 and we turned off the CD finally. Mary checked me and said that once my waters break the baby should come really fast and gave me the okay to hop into the tub. It felt so much better. Everyone says they felt great in the tub, but I don’t want to give it more credit than it’s due. It definitely felt better though! My water did end up breaking in the tub but the baby didn’t come down as planned. Mary was having a hard time getting the heartbeat so she had me get out after a few minutes. That’s when I say the torture started.

She had me trying all kinds of different positions and taking in oxygen because the baby’s heart began decelerating. It got to the point where she told me that I needed to get the baby out as soon as possible. I did have one moment where I seriously considered how much it would hurt to have to get transported to the hospital and how long it would take for some good drugs. I thought in the time I got there, I could just have the baby already so gave up that line of thinking. I was just miserable at this point because the positions I felt good in and wanted to birth in were a no go. Mary needed to be able to monitor the heart so she can me do the lay back and pull your own legs back and push thing. Plus, my contractions never increased so I ended up having to push without the help of contractions. I definitely let out some lioness roars and even a few I can’t do its, but finally they started to say “This is it, this is it”. Every time they said that I thought that the baby was going to pop out and it never did. I was getting pissed off and I think that was helpful. I decided that no matter how hard it hurt, it hurt more to let the head sink back in and then have to start pushing again, so I went on this pushing binge where ever without a contraction I just kept going. It was excruciating because Mary also had her hands in there trying to do perineal support so I wouldn’t tear. I have heard of the ring of fire, but was cut so much with Lucas that I never experienced it. I knew from teaching classes that you just have to push through it so kept going. OMG… it burned baby! Eventually the head came out but the shoulders were stuck. After a few more pushes the rest of the body came out with a little tug from Mary. I was so relieved to have him out I didn’t even think to ask if we had a boy or girl. Finally I heard Andy say “Honey, it’s a boy”. I couldn’t believe it. We were so such it was a girl. We are thrilled to have Mason Matthew. Born at 1:15am Monday February 15, 2010 at 8 lb, 10 oz and 20 ¾ inches. We are so happy to have had the natural birth we’d always wanted. Mason latched on and has been a great eater. We were able to bond right away which I didn’t get with Lucas and even with the unexpected turns in delivery had a better experience than we’d had in a hospital.

Lucas woke up just after the birth and came in and met his brother. He’s been a little jealous and acting up the last few days, but we hope that he will soon realize Mason is a great addition to the family and will be his best friend one day.